Incredible! Phillip Island, South Pacific: The Amazing Story of the Birth and Rebirth of a National Teasure

摘要

Phillip Island, the eroded remnant of the top of a volcano, covers 190 ha and lies 6 km from 3,500 ha Norfolk Island, of similar history and geology. These islands lie 680 km south of New Caledonia, 770 km northwest of New Zealand, and 1,370 km east of Australia, of which they are an external territory. Topography of Phillip Island is forbidding, as it is surrounded by high cliffs and treacherous waters, with the only access point permitting a difficult climb up through a narrow valley to the main expanse of the island. Although most of the island is then accessible, the highest point, 286 m asl, sits on a small peninsula reached only by traversing a long, narrow knife edge with a sheer drop of 200 m on either side. Coyne's book opens with an extensive description of the geological history of Phillip and the entire Norfolk group, including the fact that, intermittently, and at least as recently as 20,000 years ago, the entire group was part of a single, much larger island. This fact aids attempts to provide a reference for the Phillip Island restoration, as the entire biota was devastated by introduced mammals within a few years of Europeans first visiting the island in 1789. Although Polynesians colonized Norfolk circa 800 years ago and stayed for 200 years, there is no evidence that they lived on or even visited Phillip Island, and one important piece of evidence that they did not-unlike Norfolk, Phillip has no Pacific rats (Rattus exulans).